1. Field
The present invention concerns piston/cylinder type engines, particularly internal combustion engines and gas compressors, wherein in accordance with the present invention the cylinders are angle bored, e.g., up to about 15 degrees or more with respect to the bore of conventional engines wherein each cylinder bore is aligned with both of its associated crankpin axis and crankshaft axis at top dead center and bottom dead center of the piston. The present angle bore gives enhanced operation to the engine such as increased horsepower and/or efficiency.
2. Prior Art
The concept of parallel offsetting of the cylinder bore axis to one side of the crankshaft axis in order to enhance the operations of internal combustion engines and compressors is well documented in the literature as evidenced by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,985,475; 5,186,127; 5,394,839; and 5,076,220, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated herein in their entireties.
It is apparent from these disclosures that at least most of the major structural components of these engines such as cylinder block, crankshaft, crankpin, connecting rod, camshaft, head, intake and exhaust systems and the like must be specifically designed to accommodate the offset, as well as altering operative elements of combustion such as ignition timing. In other words such offset engines are, for the most part, manufactured from the ground up rather than by a simple modification of existing conventional engines or of their manufacturing processes.
The present invention makes it a relatively simple matter however, to modify an actual existing conventional single cylinder, xe2x80x9cin-linexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d engine, or to modify its manufacturing process to produce the present angle bored cylinder engine whereby giving the cylinder bore an angled axis is the only significant structural alteration required.
The present invention is summarized as a piston/cylinder type engine wherein the basic components of the engine are constructed and arranged as a standard production single cylinder, xe2x80x9cin-linexe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9copposed cylinderxe2x80x9d, or xe2x80x9cVxe2x80x9d engine, but wherein one or more cylinders are bored at an angle xe2x80x9cxcex1xe2x80x9d of from about 0.025xc2x0 up to about 15xc2x0 around the axis or very near, e.g., a few thousandths of an inch, the axis of the wrist pin affixing the piston to a connecting rod at TDC, to thereby rotate the bore axis generally laterally of the crankshaft axis while retaining intersection of the crankshaft axis with the wrist pin axis as in conventional engines.